The prior art includes a machine which is designed to orient and stack frusto-conical plastic cups as they are discharged from an injection molding machine. For this purpose, the prior art apparatus has an inclined vibrating ramp in the form of a trough for receiving the cups in random orientations as they are discharged from the injection molding machine. The ramp serves to cause the cups to become axially aligned, in mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-base or base to base relationship.
From the ramp, the cups are delivered to a conveyor which comprises a pair of endless belts or circular cross-section spaced apart by a distance that is less than the largest diameter of the cups and greater than the smallest diameter of the cups. On this conveyor, the cups are suspended and advanced with their open ends uppermost.
This prior art apparatus has been found to operate satisfactorily at relatively low speeds, i.e. at relatively low throughputs.
However, when it is desired to increase the throughput of this prior art machine by increasing the inclination of the inclined vibrating ramp, it is found that the apparatus does not operate satisfactorily, because the cups can no longer be correctly oriented in axial alignment by the inclined vibrating trough.